Another Me
by Rae the Hyper Purple Person
Summary: Someone returns in a VERY unexpected way, and once she's back, everything aboard the Andromeda is in chaos...
1. Prolog

 Title:  Another Me 

 Author:  Rae the Hyper Purple Girl 

 Rating:  PG 

 Status:  Work in progress 

 Summary:  Some one returns...but in a VERY unexpected way... A Trance story, but everyone will be included.  

 Spoilers:  "Last Call at the Broken Hammer" to "Tunnel at the End of the Light" ...and maybe into Season Three. I'm not sure yet. we'll just have to wait and see.  

 Author's Notes:  This Fic was written in response to a challenge at Slipstream Web BBS. The challenge read as follows: Trance loves plants. And cuttings from plants can grow on their own, into something the same size as the original. What if when Trance's tail got blown off, it somehow grew into another Trance?  

 Disclaimer:  Andromeda and the related characters do not belong to me. This story, however, does...sort of. *giggles*  

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 Prologue: The New Beginning  

It was gone.  

Trance fidgeted, an action hardly unusual for the girl. But this was different; a part of her was missing. Her purple completion was slightly more pale than usual, reflecting the quick surgery's stressful impact on her.  

Her movements brought Tyr's questioning gaze upon her, and she paused to glance at him. The Nietzchean didn't have to say a word.  

"My tail itches," Trance explained quickly, shifting her weight from foot to foot. The stub that used to be attached to a pretty, long tail hurt.  

Tyr almost grinned. "Then perhaps it isn't really gone."  

Trance Gemini smiled mysteriously. He had no idea how right he was...  

Continued in Chapter One… 


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One: The Simple Things

Eleven months later, too many things had changed. Rommie's hair acquired deep blue streaks for no apparent reason. The Commonwealth was -somehow- pulled back together. Seamus Harper's Magog visitors were removed successfully...and it only cost him his Best Friend. Trance, as they had known her, was gone - replaced by a cold warrior, a mere shadow of the warmth and joy she had once possessed.

Harper frowned as he stared down at Fiona, a beautiful daisy...that Trance had loved. It hadn't been fair. He never got to say goodbye. His purple princess was just gone. And then she had appeared.

Sure, she resembled Trance, but this gold woman with long dreadlocks was not his Trance. His Trance, the innocent purple pixie, was forever gone.

Harper gazed at the floor, rich soil and greenery meeting his eyes. Trance never came to Hydroponics anymore. It was like she was trying to avoid anything his Trance had cared about - deny the mistakes she claimed to wish to correct. Mistakes his Trance would never have a chance to make. 

He hated that. Even if she had made mistakes, nothing she could ever do could warrant ripping her away from the people who loved her, her friends. Her best friend. 

His hand rose to his cheek, touching a memory he puzzled over, and thought of frequently. Harper had never felt a kiss that meant as much as that single peck had. So much of Trance's universal love and concern had been compressed at that moment into a sweet, innocent little kiss. It had been a very Trance thing to do. It had been the last time he had seen her, before...

The unsympathetic hiss of the doors behind him interrupted his thoughts. It annoyed him. Feeling sorry for himself was strangely satisfying. 

The heavy, unfaltering footsteps that followed added to the aggravation. "What?" he demanded, sliding around to see who was barging into what he then considered his personal domain.

He wasn't surprised to see that weather gold face staring back at him. Immediately, Harper turned away. That was one person he was not in the mood to see. "You don't come here anymore, remember?"

"I thought you would be here," she told him. Even her voice was all wrong. It was supposed to be soft and innocent, not evenly controlled. 

"Just leave me alone." 

He could almost see her frowning. Here it came: that crap about being "the same Trance, only different". He had come to hate that speech.

~~~

Just when she thought things between them were getting back to normal again, someone threw a wrench in the coffee maker. Trance knew it would take time for him -for all of them- to adjust to the "new" her, but it was hard to wait that long.

Her hand reached out to rest comfortingly on his shoulder, but pulled away at the last moment. "I'm still Trance...your friend. That won't change."

She watched Harper move farther away from her, like she was a disease to be avoided. The plants in Hydroponics finally caught her eye, and she cringed. Stepping into what had once been her sanctuary was unbelievably awkward. Trance hadn't even set foot in her old quarters. For her, before her trek back into her past, the ANDROMEDA had long since been destroyed. Seeing it then was as if she were visiting a ghost of what she had known, and that was not easy to cope with.

Pushing her uncomfortable feelings aside, Trance moved on to business. "You're forgetting something."

"Hmm, let me see," he mumbled sarcastically. "No. I don't think so. Nope. Nada. Zip."

"The Maru..."

His shoulders slumped. "Oh. Right. I was meaning to talk to you about that."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I think you should find someone else to drag along. I'm...not feeling well."

Trance looked him over from where she was standing. It was true, he wasn't looking his best, but she doubted it was the result of an illness. "You should have reported to Med. Deck, then."

"You know me: I hate to be sick," he joked, but something in his voice didn't sound right. He was hiding something.

"Harper, there is nothing wrong with you," Andromeda's voice told him firmly. "I scanned you three times. Nothing is wrong."

Harper glared at her on-screen image, but said nothing.

Trance nodded to the Andromeda A.I. and headed for the door. "I expect to see you on the Maru in twenty minutes. You don't want to make me come looking for you again." She was trying to tease him, but something about the way she saw him flinch from the corner of her eye told her it hadn't quite worked. 

In the hall, she paused at a computer access panel. "Andromeda?"

"Yes, Trance?"

"Thanks for your help."

The A.I. smiled a little. "It was nothing. He's going to have to get used to you sooner or later. I just thought I'd try to help things along."

Trance actually smiled. It felt nice to do that again. To smile. She didn't get to do that very often anymore. Too many ...unsettling memories floating through her mind. "See you in a couple of days," she said. "And don't worry. Everything will be fine."

The golden woman wished she could believe that. But it seemed to be the natural pattern of her life that nothing ever went exactly according to plan. And this trip would most likely be no different.

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Dylan stood on the Command Deck of the ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT, watching the main viewer. He knew sending Harper and Trance on a mission together was a good idea, even considering the last time. With Trance now perhaps Tyr's equal in combat, he was not worried about Gerentex hijacking the MARU. Beka on the other hand...

She was pacing. Dylan grinned as Beka Valentine continued to rant and ramble. "How could you possibly consider it? You can't trust her! She's not the same Trance anymore! But noooo! 'Take the Maru, Trance. Beka won't mind.' Beka won't mind, my --"

"Beka," he interrupted, struggling to erase the amusement from his face. "They'll be fine."

"You can't trust her!"

"No, I can't."

"Then WHY did you give her my ship! ...Wait a second, you can't give her MY ship!"

Hunt couldn't stop himself. He laughed.

"Oh yeah," Beka growled. "You laugh now. But it won't be so funny when the Maru doesn't come back, now, will it?"

Dylan grew serious quickly. "She won't leave."

His first officer crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. "You sound sure of yourself."

"I am. It doesn't serve her purpose to go. She needs the Andromeda."

Beka frowned. "Then why are they going in the first place?"

"Because Trance cares about her friends: us. She wants to regain Harper's trust. Its as simple and innocent as it sounds," Dylan told her confidently. "And that is why I let her take the Maru. He needs to accept the new Trance. Harper's been driving himself crazy, and you know it."

She couldn't argue with that, and all her fire and fury seemed to drain away. The two of them watched in silence as the MARU appeared on the main viewer, pulled out of the docking bay, and entered slipstream a few seconds later. 

"Have a nice trip."

Continued in Chapter Two…


End file.
